‘Can we start now!’ squealed a blonde brat straight to camera. And with that the scary US phenomenon that is Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (TLC) was up and squeezing its redneck belly all over my TV screen.

And yet, while I expected to hate every cotton-pickin’ second of the show trashily trailing a wannabe toddler pageant princess, I was trapped like a rabbit in headlights.

Mainly because it didn’t feel like Honey Boo Boo, Mama, Pumpkin, Chickadee, Chubbs and Sugar Bear were playing up for the camera. As bizarre, alien and downright stomach churning as their Deep South lifestyles were – bobbing for raw pigs’ feet anyone? – it had a kind of insane honesty about it.